Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I find it interesting how Truss and Blinken are talking about the sanctions only lasting while the invasion is ongoing and will be removed when Russia withdraws. There's a realisation imo that this war is unwinnable for Ukraine. Also there's very significant costs for the European economy coming fast. Now that Biden's trip produced nothing significant and he's back in Washington I expect significant efforts to produce a peace deal within the next week. Otherwise Russia despite suffering severe setbacks so far will continue to escalate matters.

The DM is infested with huge numbers of putabots. I suspect every Russian embassy has mutiple people who work in shifts, 24/7, trying to bend the narrative in Russia's favour posing as locals, let alone the main centre that was revealed in St Petersburg.

That's just the second one in St Petersburg.

That's interesting. I assumed it was just right wing / far right Brexity types but Putin-bots could just as easily explain a lot of it too. There seems to be loads and loads of them, describing Zelensky as a warmonger and a troublemaker and getting hundreds of upticks for each comment.

Iì

Ukraine may have to permanently give up Donbas and Crimea and sign some sort of deal with Russia. As soon as the ink is dry the rest of Ukraine should be admitted to NATO and the EU. With lots of weapons and western money pumped into Ukraine. Russia would know then that any further encroachment would be like moving into any other NATO territory.

Long road to go on that. Russia are trying to shore up land bridge to crimea.

Losing all of that coast would be unacceptable to any country.

Ukraine will tell Russia to go swing for it. As they should.

Will it matter though, how are they going to get that land back, especially when a lot of those people identify as Russian. The danger is Russia will come back for more. They need to be in NATO. It’s terrible they might have to do that but realistically what other options are open to Ukraine..

It won’t be solely down to Ukraine. If the west negotiates a potential solution with Russia then they may pressurise Ukraine into accepting. I don’t think anyone really believes the west give a damn about Ukraine.

Would you give up half your back garden to your neighbour because he threatened to shoot you? If you did, knowing you're a soft touch he'd likely be back for the other half some time in the future.

You don't appease bullies. You confront them.

Thousands of people have laid down their lives in Ukraine, millions displaced and most of the country destroyed, and all for what if you just let Putin take what he wants.

In a fair and free vote, with no recriminations, I'll wager the majority of Russians would vote against war. This is not Russia's war it's Putin's war. A devious, lying and tyrannical despot who's doing a land grab to take back what he perceives as Russian land, and to tell the world how important he is... when in reality he's not.

The nuclear threat wont go away so how much rope do you give him? He'll use them soon enough or in the near future because that's all he's got. So why should the world wait and hold its breath, and then retaliate when that happens.

The Ukranians are doing the right thing. They said they would fight to the last man, and by God that's what they're doing. It's their land and they'll defend it to the last.

@jackboy

You'd have to be hard-hearted to look at the situation in Ukraine and not feel quite bad for the ordinary people caught up in it, number one. Number two, the war in Ukraine is more than just a regional war, it's also a theatre in the struggle between authoritarianism and liberal democracy. As Ukraine has tried to move its allegiance westward, Russia is using force to prevent that. Russia's success there would only embolden them and would also embolden other authoritarian regimes to use force to promote their ideology, that ideology being about total unaccountable power and control. So, it's very much in our interest to see Russia fail miserably in Ukraine, and to help that outcome with lots of foreign aid to the country.

Joe Bidens call for regime change in Russia was a game changer, for 5 minutes until the white house said he was asleep during his speech, now his speech is nullified

The west don’t care about any of that. The west or Russia do not want NATO to directly get involved so there will have to be a solution. Russia will settle for a chunk of Ukraine and the west may pressurise Ukraine to accept that. Ultimately that will be a defeat for Russia as besides their nukes, their military will not be a credible threat for decades.

Just seeing a

Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk which is a 'remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft.'

Doing the rounds on flight radar.

My first time seeing it. Looks cool.

And hasnt Putin called for regime change in Ukraine...